Without much fanfare at last year’s EICMA show in Italy, Kawasaki released news on an electric sports motorcycle. Meant to test the concept of electric motorcycles for Kawasaki, the prototype now has a name, the Kawasaki EV Endeavor.
While the concept of electric motorcycles (e-bikes) is no longer new, what sets the EV Endeavor apart is its use of a four-speed gearbox, mimicking the performance of a conventional internal combustion engined motorcycle. E-bikes tend to only have a single speed with direct drive from the electric motor to the rear wheel, like the Harley-Davidson Livewire tested by paultan.org, or a hub-mounted electric motor, usually found in urban electric scooters.
From the videos, the EV Endeavor looks to be about the size of the Kawasaki Ninja 400 or Ninja 650 and from the single-disc configuration on the front wheel, we’re guessing the weight of Kawasaki’s e-bike must be below 160 kg or so. Kawasaki has come out to say the EV Endeavor is very much a test vehicle but as a proof of concept, we have to say the bike looks very exciting.
There are very few details on the EV Endeavor, but with an electric motor and chain final drive, it can be assumed acceleration will be nothing short of exciting, as Kawasaki is keen to demonstrate in one of the series of teaser videos. Also, no word on on when the EV Endeavor might be coming to the market, but it has been mentioned it will be coming to market soon, but possibly not in this form.
However, Kawasaki has been known to come out with motorcycles that answer the questions no one asked but then proceed to raise the technological bar for the rest of the market. We will be keeping our eyes on this one.
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This is the real-deal bike, for superhero police Gaban!!
This is it, an e-bike with transmission. The problem of e-bike is how souless it can be, no engine roar nor rider engagement.
no vrroom sound, no shiok.